Berryhill takes two

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, July 16, 2004

Tyler Walter of Sanford Post 443 picks up an infield ball in time to get a Berryhill runner out at first during the American Legion district baseball tournament at Bay City Western on Friday morning.

AUBURN - Midland Berryhill manager Dan Cronkright will have to miss all of this weekend's American Legion Baseball district tournament, because he is overseas on a work assignment. His players, however, are doing everything they can to ensure that he gets to coach them again next weekend.

Berryhill (25-5) beat Sanford 6-3 and Mount Pleasant 4-0 on Friday to advance to today's winners' bracket final at Bay City Western High School. Midland will face the winner of today's 10 a.m. Gladwin/West Branch game at 5:30 p.m. Should Berryhill win today, it could wrap up the district title with another win on Sunday in the double-elimination tournament.

The district champion will host a zone tournament next weekend.

"It should be a good ballgame. We'll be ready for either one of them," said Berryhill coach Don Page, who is filling in for Cronkright. "It's getting down to where, with who's left, it should be a good ballgame all the way through."

Friday's tourney-opening game between Midland and Sanford was definitely a good game from the very start. Dan Ryan led off the game with a home run, and Berryhill added two more in the top of the second to go up 3-0.

Midland's second-inning rally was helped considerably by a dropped fly ball. Sanford made the game close later on but never completely recovered.

"I thought both teams played well," Page said. "That dropped fly ball was big for them. It got them down right away, and they had to play catch-up."

Sanford got on the board in the bottom of the second on a run-scoring infield hit by Brett Urbaniak to make it 3-1, and that would be all of the scoring until the top of the sixth when a two-run homer by Berryhill's Alex Dawe made it 5-1.

Berryhill pitcher Kevin Schwedler had coasted through the first five innings, but Page elected to replace him with Eric Deboe to start the bottom of the sixth.

The move nearly backfired.

Deboe began the inning by allowing a single, a walk, and an RBI-single to pull Sanford to within 5-2. Two batters later, with two on and one out, Urbaniak nearly tied the game, but his home run bid was hauled in just shy of the leftfield fence. Still, Brian Patrick scored on the play, making it 5-3.

Deboe then walked Casey Zylman before striking out Jordan Morrison to end both the inning and Sanford's chances.

Nathan Marquardt doubled in a run in the seventh to pad Berryhill's lead, and Deboe pitched a scoreless bottom half to close out the game.

Alex Dawe of Berryhill jumps and catches the ball for an out in the last inning of Berryhill's game against Sanford Post 443 during the American Legion district baseball tournament at Bay City Western on Friday.

Page said he had decided before the game that he would pull Schwedler after five innings and allow Deboe to finish.

"He's had some arm problems, and we just wanted to look at him," Page said of Deboe. "If we get to the state tournament, we've got to find out what he can do for us."

With the loss, Sanford drops into the losers' bracket, where it will take on Bay City today at 12:30 p.m.

"We left a lot of guys on base, and we also missed a couple of bunts when we had two guys on and no outs, which is a real big no-no," said Sanford manager Mike Smock, whose team stranded seven runners. "We're pretty close to being (one of the better teams in the area). We've just got to be able to get the bunts down and get the hits when we need them.

"If we can pick up a couple more guys from the Midland area (in the future), I think we can be competitive with anybody."

Schwedler earned the win, allowing one run on four hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Brandon Weakman took the loss, going the distance and giving up 10 hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.

"I thought the Weakman kid threw very well," said Page. "He hit his spots and had the hitters off (balance). He just made a couple of mistakes, and we took advantage of them. And that's what hitters are supposed to do."

Dawe was 2-for-3 and scored twice for Berryhill, while Sean Hoffman was 2-for-2 with a run batted in. Ken Hoffman was 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored, Ryan had two hits and scored twice, Matt Shields had two hits, and Josh Peterson drove in a run.

For Sanford, Patrick was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk and scored twice, while Urbaniak had two RBIs and Tyler Griswold one RBI.

Against Mount Pleasant, Berryhill took advantage of three errors by shortstop Nick McConnell to score a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the second for a 2-0 lead. Midland added a run in the third on an RBI-groundout by Ken Hoffman and another run in the fourth on an RBI-single by Kurtis Frymier.

Brad Schalk got the win, pitching the full seven innings and scattering seven hits with no walks and four strikeouts. Mike Schmidt took the loss, going the distance and allowing only one earned run on seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts.

"I thought Brad Schalk threw a nice ballgame," said Page. "They got some hits, but we played defense behind him, and he made some pitches when he had to. He seemed to get stronger as the game went on."

Dane Devereaux led Berryhill at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Shields added a double.

For Mount Pleasant, Mickey Ervin and James Folske were both 2-for-3.

Page said he will probably start Sean Hoffman on the mound today in the winners' bracket final.

"He's probably our No. 1 (pitcher) at this point right now," Page said, adding of Gladwin or West Branch, "And we'll probably see their No. 1, also."